How a secret passion project turned into ‘Once Upon a Studio’

How can you meaningfully celebrate a century of beloved features and shorts? In the fall of 2021, Dan Abraham and Trent Coley will show you how to celebrate Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 100th anniversary. That question popped into my head when we met in the parking lot of a local Taco Bell to brainstorm. This was the definition of a passion project. Because no one had ever assigned them such an ambitious project (and for that matter, we didn’t even know they were working on it). Over the course of eight months, the two continued to meet whenever and wherever possible, secretly, to develop an entirely new and original short story. Once Upon a Studio.

“In 2019, Dan and I worked on the Olaf short story. Once upon a time snowman. We directed this film together, but it was the first time we had met in person,” Corey recalls. “Dan comes from a story background and I come from an animation background, so we thought it was a great fit. We had a really fun time making this short piece, and we came out on the other side thinking, ‘How do we work together again?’ Is it possible?” I thought.As we go our separate ways, I Zootopia+ I started working on the series. Baymax! series—we started talking about how to recreate that experience. We started sharing ideas about what inspired us and what we wanted to do together.And we know that his 100th anniversary is approaching, and that our studio wish—This work is a celebration of the future of Disney, but there were no plans yet to focus on legacy characters or what inspired us to become animators. So that was kind of the beginning of this thing happening. ”

After developing the idea in their spare time for several months, the co-creators pitched the concept to Jennifer Lee, chief creative officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios. “She had no idea what it was,” Abraham says. “As the pandemic was still going on, I went through all the storyboards on Zoom and presented this idea to her. When I finished speaking, she got up and walked away from the camera. Trent and I looked at each other. “Oh no…what’s going on?” When she came back, she had her glasses on her head and was wiping a few tears. She said, “I don’t know how to make this, but I have to figure out how to make this.” Trent and I were insane. I couldn’t believe it. Working on something for this long felt like a long way off. Moreover, working on something that no one asked for felt like a very long journey. I felt so wonderful. ”

Of course, once we got the green light, we had to speed up the production process.

“This short features hundreds of characters and includes hand-drawn elements, CG elements, and live-action plates,” Corey explains. “We knew we were shaking things up, we knew we were approaching our 100th anniversary, and we all I know how long the animation takes. If you want to do this, you need to do it now. Thankfully, Jennifer Lee agreed to our proposal at that moment. After that, I was able to start very quickly. ”

Next, Clark Spencer, President of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Once Upon a Studio internally during a year-end town hall meeting. Inspired by themselves and each other, Yvette Merino and Bradford Simonsen set out to create this short piece. “Separately, Brad and I emailed Clark and said, ‘Hey, we need to work on this,'” Merino says. “I didn’t know at the time that Brad was writing basically the same email to Clark as I was. By the end of January, we were working on a short story and just started putting everything together.”

Almost everyone in the studio shared Abraham, Corey, Simonsen, and Merino’s passion. Once Upon a Studio, brings together 543 characters from over 85 feature and short films. Because hand-drawn, CG, and live-action elements all need to interact, the producers assembled a team of experts to support the short’s technical needs. “We have so many people coming up to us and emailing us, texting us, slacking off and saying, ‘I just need to be a part of this,'” Cory said. I didn’t expect that,” Abraham added. , “I quickly realized how important these characters were to the people in the building. Characters like Ariel, Mulan, and Pinocchio feel like part of the family. They all come out of the woodwork, It was great to see that enthusiasm.”

fans will see Once Upon a Studio It will first air on ABC on Sunday, October 15th. Wonderful World of Disney: Disney 100th Anniversary!. With completely new hand-drawn and CG animation, Once Upon a Studio celebrates 100 years of storytelling, artistry, and technical achievement, all with the magic of Disney.